According to a survey recently conducted by TravelZoo, an online travel information platform, Taiwan is the third most popular destination among Chinese. Taiwan Premier Jiang Yi-huah said recently that he hopes the number of Chinese tourists in Taiwan to reach nine millions this year. However, Stanley Yen, Former Chairman of Landis Taipei Hotel, warned that if Taiwan was to focus on boosting the number of tourists and ignoring the quality of tourists visiting Taiwan, the country will follow Hong Kong’s suit and the influx of Chinese tourists will ruin Taiwan.

Stanley Yen has long been regarded as the Godfather of Taiwan’s tourism. Yen said in an interview with Business Weekly that due to the massive number of Chinese tourists in China, hotel service in Hong Kong has changed, “(for example) as I checked in at a five-star hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui recently, the driver left my bags outside the hotel and the bellboy asked if I wished to carry my own bag or would I like his help. I asked for a non-smoking room, and the front desk staff surprisingly asked me to sign a note to guarantee that I would not smoke inside the room! Clearly, the hotel industry (in Hong Kong) has completely lost its trust in its customers! The quality of their service has fallen to a historical low.”

Yen also said that the large number of Chinese tour groups will only ruin Taiwan: the East Rift Valley National Scenic Area will be drowned by the noise created by tourists, some profit greedy businessmen will build hotel after hotel to maximise profit from Chinese tourists, “but this will lead Taiwan to a point of no return, whereby it will be the same as what Hong Kong is at present, the quality of life is being sacrificed completely… If the government does not control the growth of tourists, it could only mean disaster to Taiwan.” Yen also recommended that quality tourists should be encouraged to visit Taiwan.

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This article is originally published in The House News. The translation is done by us at The Real Hong Kong News. We would recommend you to check with The House News on the copy right issue.